


Silence

by NebulousMistress



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Inventive Torture, RX-3081 is Not Nice, Torture, did the research, no blood or gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:54:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28659798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousMistress/pseuds/NebulousMistress
Summary: RX-3081 has caught a spy. This one is a bit personal so he's going to make sure nobody forgets it. The First Order could always use another module on non-traditional torture techniques.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	Silence

**Author's Note:**

> This story doubles as a [Bad Things Happen Bingo](https://nebulousmistress.tumblr.com/post/616692789320810496/here-is-your-card-for-bad-things-happen-bingo) prompt fill for Recorded/Broadcast Torture. Recorded and turned into a training module, in this case.

The cam droid floated behind, unobtrusive and observant. Its black case and blinking red light matched the armor of the black-clad stormtrooper. RX-3081 usually liked to take his time with these interrogations but so rarely did he have such a delightful excuse.

The Republic spy sat tied to the chair. Zip ties secured his wrists and elbows to the arms of the standard office chair. His legs were similarly bound, ankles and upper calves strapped to the legs of the chair. An extra rope harness tied his shoulders to the chair back, preventing him from thrashing about too much and maybe somehow escaping from his bonds.

The man’s shirt was elsewhere, the better to show the cam droid exactly what he was doing. Electrode patches attached to the man’s bare chest and belly fed information to RX-3081’s internal HUD.

He had everything he needed. And the spy was beginning to wake up. Excellent.

RX-3081 watched as the spy’s breath caught and he tensed up. The EKG trace on his HUD sped up as the spy realized what must have happened. He was caught and now he would face some sort of interrogation. The heart rate leveled out as the spy assessed his situation and came to a conclusion, a wrong one as far as RX-3081 was concerned. Republic spies were trained to resist interrogation, which is why this wasn’t an interrogation. He had them both in an interrogation room in the bowels of the  _ Maletrix _ but he had no intention of pumping this spy for information. The loopy R-unit droids currently tearing apart the spy’s files with glee could give him all the information he needed later.

Now he had better things to do than interrogation.

“What now?” the spy asked, looking RX-3081 in the eye.

This was personal. This spy had disguised himself as a Stormtrooper, called himself TC-0460, claimed to be a transfer in, had even gotten himself transferred to the Expeditionary Scout Squadron in an attempt to, what, to regain the ability to return to Republic Space without incident? Whatever reason RX-3081 didn’t entirely care. Not anymore.

The R-units could find whatever information Command required. RX-3081 had better plans for TC-0460. He would turn this man’s last few hours into a training module.

RX-3081 watched the EKG trace in his helm, each three-peaked heartbeat shining in his HUD. It was faster than his own, that sound ringing in his ears. The spy was afraid.

Good.   


“That depends, doesn’t it,” RX-3081 mused. “If the Majors Raan had a say I suppose they’d order your execution. The Kuati tell me open space is the quietest place you’ll ever know. No sound but your own heartbeat as you slowly lose your air and then… you die.”

The spy looked up, expression carefully blank. His dead eyes refused to look directly into RX-3081’s black lenses. Instead he fixed his gaze on an empty patch of wall.

“But they’re not here,” RX-3081 continued. “And as I am your squad leader I reserve the right to determine what to do in their absence.”

“You’re going to kill me,” the spy said.

“Eventually I’ll have to,” RX-3081 agreed. “But not yet.” He gestured to the cam droid that floated behind, red ‘recording’ light flashing. “First I know you always felt our field training was lacking. You’re going to help me remedy that.”

The spy looked at him in confusion while RX-3081 determined his timing. The spy’s EKG flashed perfectly, heartbeat after heartbeat, and RX-3081 traced his precise moment.

Then he struck.

He punched the spy in the chest, to the right of the sternum, between the second and third rib. The EKG line went flat.

It took a moment for the spy to realize what had just happened. He looked up in dawning horror and then began to scream.

RX-3081 watched the line stay flat even as the man screamed in mortal terror. There was no terror more total than the realization that one was already dead. The screaming began to fade as his oxygen depleted and he slumped over in his chair.

RX-3081 tapped a button on his wrist and the electrodes strapped to the spy shot to life. The EKG started up again and the spy gasped in utter shock. He sat back up and looked at RX-3081 in confused terror.  


RX-3081 pulled his helmet off.

He was delighted it worked. He wasn’t sure the defib shock would restart the heart but he supposed the humanoid heart really was as resilient as he’d learned in anatomy class. It made sense now that humans used to transplant the organ before pulmonodes came into common use. But as resilient as it was, it had certain weaknesses of electrical design.

“The humanoid heart can be quite fragile,” RX-3081 said with an almost conversational tone. “It beats because of an electrical signal produced by one single node on the right side. If I hit that node correctly, in the right spot with the right amount of force at the right time, I can reset the electrical signal. I can turn your heart off.”

The spy trembled in his seat.

“Despite popular opinion you can live without a heartbeat,” RX-3081 continued. “A pulmonode doesn’t give you a pulse, only a constant whoosh. But more than that, you don’t die immediately without a heart. Your brain keeps going, like a severed head in a bacta vat. You hear your heart isn’t beating and your brain has the chance to realize it, even if your mind is too shocked to do anything about it.

“That, I suppose, is true silence. Even in space you can hear your own heartbeat. It’s deafening. It’s the only sound left.” RX-3081 smiled, a grin of utter delight crossing his features as he regarded the spy strapped to the chair. “And it’s a sound you can live without. It isn’t even enough force to damage the heart. I can do this again and again, stopping and restarting your heart, and you won’t suffer for it.” He chuckled to himself. “Not physically, anyway. So tell me, TC-0460, what does silence sound like?”

The spy watched in terror as RX-3081 pulled his helm back on and as the cam droid drifted closer, recording his every movement. His heart pounded in his ears until the tap came, not even hard enough to hurt.

And then silence.

Utter silence.

RX-3081 leaned in close as the spy shook, shining black eyes reflecting green in the interrogation chamber. “What does silence sound like?” he purred.

The spy knew. In those terrible moments he knew silence. True silence. But there were no words to describe.


End file.
